Exchange Solutions

When installing an Exchange update you may run into the following error.

Error:
The following error was generated when "$error.Clear(); 
 & $RoleBinPath\ServiceControl.ps1 -Operation:DisableServices -Roles:($RoleRoles.Replace('Role','').Split(',')) -SetupScriptsDirectory:$RoleBinPath;
 & $RoleBinPath\ServiceControl.ps1 Stop $RoleRoles.Replace('Role','').Split(',')
 " was run: "Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.ServiceStopFailureException: 
 Service 'tmlisten' failed to stop due to error:'Cannot stop tmlisten service on computer 
---> System.InvalidOperationException:  Cannot stop tmlisten service on computer 
---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The requested control is not valid for this service

The tmlisten service is associated with the Trend Micro antivirus product and specifically the Trend Micro Listener service. This service requires a password to stop and can not be disabled via either the services snap-in or command line.

While upgrading one my Exchange lab servers I was presented with the error, “The certificate is expired.”

This error occurred while setup was installing the transport service and it was blocking the install from completing. Further investigation of the event logs indicated that the transport certificate had expired (Event ID 12015). This made sense why the setup was failing during that step.

The challenge here was the Exchange Admin Center would no longer load. Luckily, the Exchange Management Shell was still operational. Following are the steps to renew a certificate using the Exchange Management Shell. I have included instructions for renewing both a self-signed and third-party certificate. Once renewed setup will complete. [Read more…] about Error installing Exchange update – The certificate is expired

While preparing Active Directory for Exchange you may run into the following error.

 F:\> Setup /PrepareAD /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 6 Unattended Setup
Copying files...
File copy complete. Setup will now collect additional information needed for installation.

Preforming Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check

   Prerequisite Analysis

Setup will prepare the organization for Exchange Server 2016 by using 'Setup /PrepareAD'.

Active Directory must be prepared with 'Setup /PrepareAD'. However, the current user account doesn't have the permissions required even though it's a member of the 'Enterprise Admins' group. Check whether this is a valid user account.

We ran into this recently at a client. This was an odd error because it indicated we had all the necessary group memberships to perform this task. We had also just used this account to successfully extend the schema moments before.

Fixing ‘User does not have permissions’

We quickly discovered that the Default Domain Controllers Policy (which is a group policy assigned to the domain controllers OU) had been removed. It was uncertain when this may have happened but the absence of this policy was not the issue itself. Moreover, it was a setting that comes predefined by that policy. The error we were receiving was due to the absence of the User Rights Assignment, Manage auditing and security logs. This right is granted to the Exchange Servers and Administrators built-in groups. [Read more…] about Error running /PrepareAD – User does not have permissions but is a member of Enterprise Admins

Recently, while troubleshooting an Exchange environment, I ran across event ID 2142 from the MSExchangeADTopology source. This error can be found in the application logs and indicates that the topology service could not find the minimum required domain controllers needed for Exchange. For the environment, I was troubleshooting this was particularly odd as this site containing Exchange had three functional domain controllers. The environment was also a single AD site. The error in full:

Process Microsoft.Exchange.Directory.TopologyService.exe (PID=2700) Forest domain.com. Topology discovery failed, error details: No Minimal Required Number of Suitable Directory Servers Found in Forest domain.com Site Default-First-Site-Name and connected Sites.

[Read more…] about Topology discovery failed: Required number of suitable directory servers